All Saints Day began with steady rain, but by the time I’d
ridden to the Ice Cream Farm, the clouds had cleared and the day promised to be
dry with some sunshine and mild winds. Twelve Easy Riders turned up, the
moderates comprising Jim, George, Mike G, David M, Neil (on his new bike),
Steve T, Trevor and myself. It was good
to see Dave H also there, in civvies performing his club secretary duties, and
also collecting choices and monies for the Christmas Lunch. He needs to receive confirmation of
attendance and at least the £5 deposit by 22nd November.
I had pulled a previous ride to Hanmer from the archive: a
figure of eight with a return through Malpas and Brown Knowl. We started
through Tattenhall, Barton and Threapwood, but were making good time and I
therefore decided to divert eastwards and dip down through Lower Wych to avoid
arriving too early at the pub. As we travelled
along some good surfaced lanes for a change, we split into two groups. I remained in the slower group and we were
surprised to arrive at the Hanmer Arms ahead of the others. About 5 minutes later they arrived much muddied
from their excursion through the lanes to Arowry, whilst we had taken the clean
main road for the final mile or so.
The pub was quite busy but we were accommodated on a couple
of tables and served relatively quickly.
As usual, there was a friendly welcome with good value food and drink.
There appears to be a planning application for a large holiday home development
behind the pub. These and caravan parks seem to be a way to keep many country
pubs open when others are forced to close.
I modified our return plans to keep the overall route under
40 miles and to avoid what would have been a hillier return. We took the fairly
direct route northwards through Tallarn Green, Shocklach and Clutton. At Sarn
Bridge we find a mega-sized tractor going our way, confronting an even bigger one
on the bridge. We carefully keep well
away from these monsters at they manoeuvre past each other. From Sarn Bridge we
gradually shed riders, as they make their own ways home. Eventually only Steve T, George, Jim and myself
end up back at the Ice Cream Farm, to reflect on what had been a good autumn ride
of 38 miles.
SH
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